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Sunday, May 4, 2014

Thermomix Review

Update June 2016 We now have the newest thermomix and our eldest son and his girlfriend have inherited our original one. I still use it daily. Each morning I blend up my smoothie in it, evenings we either cook our meal in it or use it to help prepare the meal eg. to chop up veges or mix meatballs quickly.Earlier this week I read a review about the thermomix here. It was a funny ole review indeed and given that I have had a thermomix since late 2007 I really wanted to give my thoughts and personal experience on this kitchen machine.

I brought my thermomix over 7 years ago after going to a demonstration. It was expensive then and still is now. Mine has paid for itself in the first year and I will explain how further down.The consultant I brought mine from gave a lovely demonstration, mentioned the price, cooked some delicious food and then left the buying up to us. There was absolutely no pressure for buying one or for hosting a demonstration. There was no hard sell at all by this consultant. I wanted to mention this because the review above describes her experiences with consultants (she has never been to a demo) as cult like.My 7 year old thermomix has never needed repairing and I have only had to replace a perished rubber seal during the seven years.My thermomix sits on my bench top as it gets lots of use and I want it available at all times. It takes up as much space as my toaster. We use it to cook or prepare food everyday. Hubby uses it as much as I do (and in the seven years we have owned ours neither hubby or I have never cut our fingers with the blade!). It is a huge time saver. For example I cooked a risotto one day this week. It took 20 minutes and because the themomix cooks and stirs, I had a shower, tidied the kitchen and set the table and came back when the thermomix timer beeped. Another night this week we had rice with steamed fish and steamed vegetables. All cooked in the thermomix. while this meal was cooking I cleaned the kitchen and helped my son with his homework. The review above mentions that the bowl isn't particularly big. Well it is big enough to cook risotto for 6-8 people, spaghetti bolognaise for 8, custard for 6. We are a family of 5 (two adults, two teens and one younger child). I can cook a full meal or dessert in the bowl for our family, often with some leftovers too.It can be noisy, very noisy when grinding grains, almonds to almond meal, crushing ice etc. But when heating and stirring and cooking our thermomix is quieter than when I cook at the stove top with our exhaust fan going. Grinding nuts and grains and crushing ice only takes a minute or less so when it is a loud noise it is only for a short time.Having a thermomix has brought the love back into cooking for me. I am experiencing more and more with flavour combinations and trying harder recipes than ever before. It makes the whole cooking process so much more fun. My kids also us it. In summer they ocme home from school and make themselves a slushie, or custard as a dessert after tea. Here is a list of what I made in the thermomix last week:Yoghurt, butter, jelly slice, rice bubble slice, pancakes from the left over buttermilk from making the butter, pumpkin risotto, bolognaise sauce, vegetable stock, garam masala, pizza bases, mince from cubes beef, drinking chocolate, vegetable curry soup, steamed fish, steamed vegetables, steamed dumplings, cooked rice, coconut cupcakes, grated cheese, carrots and cabage for salads, almond meal from whole almonds, sweet chilli sauce, basil pesto.As I mentioned above my thermomix paid for itself with in a year as instead of buying so many cans and processed or pre made food we started making our own. No more cans of soup, grated cheese, yoghurt or butter, we make a lot of our own herb and spice mixes, make our own pasta sauces, tomatoe paste and ice cream. We make the majority of snacks for the kids now instead of spending on packaged biscuits, slices, crumpets etc. As a result our love of cooking has grown. We still cook at the stove or in the oven but often prepare the food in the thermomix to speed things up. Finally I can't end my experience about my thermomix without mentioning the funny 'con' written in the review above. "People who have a Thermomix become somewhat gang like". Ha, ha, that made me laugh!I have friends that have thermomixes and we share recipes and talk about what we have cooked in it. I also have friends without thermomixes and we talk about food and what we have cooked too. I don't think my friends are gang like with a thermomix. All of them love it and have a new found love of cooking as a result so maybe that is why she thinks they are gang like? What I do know is that if something was to happen to my 7 year old thermomix I would go out and buy another one tomorrow. Yes, its is an investment but I would rather go without a tv than my thermomix now.